QuikVest is a concept mobile application for investing in mutual funds. Its unique value lies in its powerful learning module and availability in India's popular local languages. It also includes a portfolio management and analysis module powered by AI. It primarily targets novice investors venturing into mutual funds and intermediate investors looking to have easy access to financial educational content while also making sure that veteran investors have all the tools required for their trade.

The primary aim of the learning module is to help users achieve financial literacy and empower them to make informed decisions about investments. A blog is also attached to the learning module which gives insights and strategies provided by experts in the field.

Now that you have seen the solution and the key features, you might be wondering how I decided on those. Well, this was my process.

When confronted with a challenge, I believe in thoroughly exploring existing solutions and gathering comprehensive information before attempting to develop a novel approach. My methodology involves extensive research and investigation, as I recognize that more often than not, an effective solution already exists, negating the need for unnecessary reinvention.

However, gathering relevant information for this project proved to be a significant challenge. With the vast expanse of the financial domain, I found myself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data and resources available. However, through persistent effort, I was able to identify and leverage these authoritative sources:

A report of a well conducted survey by Aspero and Amaha, google, economic newspapers, survey results, Govt. reports, AMFI reports, market predictions, economic forums, AI bots and analysis of other competitors in the Mutual Fund space with similar offerings.

In my research process, I extensively explored a vast array of content from diverse sources. However, I am particularly grateful to Aspero and Amaha for granting me access to their invaluable report, which was based on a comprehensive survey involving over 300 respondents who were mutual fund investors. Notably, this report is readily accessible to the public, requiring only the submission of one's name and email address. The availability of this resource significantly reduced the time and effort I would have otherwise needed to invest in conducting primary research, thereby streamlining my investigative process.

For primary research, I tried to get participants with the criteria for age between 21 and 60, who are either new or have never invested in mutual funds. Since it is a self driven application design, budget constraints meant that I had to depend a lot more on the secondary research.

Thankfully the report provided a lot of primary insights which would have been impossible to obtain otherwise and I could concentrate more on people who are either novice or currently not investing. I mainly used online surveys to validate the hypothesis from my secondary research.

From primary and secondary research these were the main takeaways which guided my design choices :

• The main target would be users using android due to its market share in India being over 95% of all smartphones
• There is a lack of support for popular local languages which affected accessibility and financial inclusivity.
• There is a lack of readily available educational resources tailored for novice and intermediate investors.
• According to the Aspero and Amaha report , more than 60% of mutual fund investors used online research as their primary method for knowledge seeking while 35% used either financial advisors, colleagues or friends for the same.
• Portfolio management is an area where significant USP can be created with the help of AI analysis and reports.

After completing the initial phase of research, I recognized that there might be other aspects I had overlooked or failed to consider. This realization prompted me to create a user journey map to further identify barriers that often hinders individuals from venturing into this domain. The affinity mapping exercise further solidified my understanding of the pain points experienced by novice and intermediate investors. This process guided me towards developing a solution that prioritized simplicity, clarity, and financial empowerment, addressing the key challenges faced by those navigating the investment landscape.

User Journey Map

Potential Pain Points

Affinity Map

As you might have noticed a few of the initial steps from the User Journey Map are out of scope for the application design. Based on the affinity mapping, I came up with a bunch of solutions for the pain points identified.

Proposed Solutions

Using the User Journey Map and the Proposed Solutions, I formulated a resilient information architecture for the mobile application, ensuring it accommodated future product expansions. And this acted as the single source of truth for my design.

Information Architecture

The core focus was designing a mutual fund investing app that combined investing, portfolio management and a comprehensive learning module and all of these available in major regional languages. The learning module aimed to provide users with structured, bite-sized lessons to enhance their investment knowledge and enable informed decision-making.

Using the IA, I plotted out the key user flows and also the mandatory user flows which were required for the app to function according to Govt regulations. And proceeded to sketch wireframes on Figma for the same.

• User Sign In Flow
• Learn Tab Flow
• KYC and User Profile Flow
• Portfolio Tab Flow
• Invest Tab Flow

Two of the flows in the wireframe are shown below are shown below :

User Sign In Flow

Invest Tab Flow

After the user flows were done, It was the moment of truth. To validate the wireframes, I conducted a Semi-Guided Usability Test on the wireframes using random participants and got the following feedback:

• The initial Invest page was jarring and had way too much clutter in the top half and confused the participants about the purpose of the application

  

• On the learn user flow, multiple participants were confused. They were unsure if the choices made were final and whether they would be able to opt in for the courses later if they didn't select it now

  

I also learned an important lesson. Placeholders didn't work as well as I thought it would when I did the Usability Test. Most of the participants were getting distracted by the placeholders not having text or images. I think that effort to add decent placeholders before testing would have helped me in getting a better output from the study.

With the suggestions from the usability study in hand, I got into the phase I was most excited to do, the mockups and high fidelity prototype. By this point, I had an inkling that I might have bitten off more than I could chew and should have stuck to just one user flow. But I decided to go through with the entire application and I was glad I did.